The Dallas Cowboys Blocked Out the Noise to Achieve Success

10 Nov The Dallas Cowboys Blocked Out the Noise to Achieve Success

And what you can learn about blocking out the noise for your business

As I was working out one morning, I caught a segment of Good Morning Football. In this clip, Peter Schrager talks about how the Buffalo Bills were able to block out the noise and find success. Now this isn’t my rant about how well the Buffalo Bills are doing, because recently that success they found is now gone (perhaps the noise is getting to them).

But it got me thinking—what team this year in the NFL is hearing a lot of noise and finding success?

Who else? The Dallas Cowboys. The team people love or hate.

After their quarterback (Tony Romo) went down, everyone assumed the season was over. Then their star wide receiver went down (Dez Bryant). Now the season was really over. And even when they found success, people said how it couldn’t last. They had a rookie quarterback (Dak Prescott) and no way that will work. In the Sunday Night game recently, one check of Twitter mid game and you would have thought the Cowboys season had ended. Except by the end of the game, the Cowboys won again. The key takeaway here is the importance of blocking out noise—because that’s all that other people’s talk about you is, just noise. It’s a distraction you don’t need.

In the Dallas Cowboys’ case, they started the season 0-1 losing a close game to a division rival (New York Giants). The negative noise got loud.

The media, the fans, anyone with a voice all said it’s just a matter of time before this team is out of the playoff hunt.

They were all wrong.

I’ve heard negative talk directed my way many times, both before, when I was working for a large company, or now with KazSource. Sometimes it’s somebody with a personal grudge for whatever reason, other times it’s a competitor deliberately using scare tactics to try to gain advantage. It’s important to remember that there will always be doubters. Over time, you learn to manage this noise. You have a vision, you have a goal, you have priority tasks—that’s what matters, not what someone on the outside might say or think.

The Dallas Cowboys heard the noise, but it didn’t distract them. They managed it. Perhaps it fuels their fire. You must stay true to the course you are on. Win the next game. Stick together as a team no matter what. Those on the outside have no clue what is going on—let them guess. Let them think you are failing. You focus on your vision, your goal. If you do, you give yourself a greater chance to be successful. If you don’t, you will fail before you even start.